Ian Thompson brings athletic skill to Utah State University Eastern’s soccer field and deep thoughts to students.“Soccer is my favorite; so is arguing.”

Something he brings up as an issue in society is the perception that drug users are criminals. “Instead they have an addiction or a mental illness.” Thompson explains. One approach to decrease drug addiction is to make all drugs legal and treat addicts with their substance of choice in a dose lower than their level of satisfaction. “The worst thing you could do to a person is throw them in jail, that is worse than anything the drug would do to them.”

Thompson plans to transfer to Logan to study finance. “I want to get into finance because it is very lucrative; high risk, high reward kind of thing.” Thompson plans to gain a background in finance to hopefully own a business some day, specifically handling marijuana. He loves living in Utah, “Utah is great. We have sand dunes, we have canyons, we have mountains, there are things to do all around us.” Nonetheless, he does not foresee his dream happening in the Beehive state.

Thompson explains how he plans to be content regardless of where he ends up. “ I want to make enough money early in life so I can invest that money and have it work for me and retire early.”

Thompson is aware that hard work now will pay off down the road. He takes his education seriously and is motivated by the mental representation he has for his future.

“Something that drives me everyday is the fear of manual labor. I want to get a good education so I can have a nice desk job and not kill my body. I’d rather work on my mind.”